2006 Progress Report
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The mission of the Prostate Cancer Foundation is to find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. 2006 Progress Report 1 As the Prostate Cancer Foundation nears its 15th year of seeking better treatments and an eventual cure for prostate cancer, we pledge to you – trusted partners, directors, donors, friends, survivors and families – that we will not rest until we accomplish the goal of ending death and suffering from prostate cancer. We’re accelerating our timetable, harnessing every available resource and delivering needed funds to investigators on the brink of finding new discoveries to benefit men and their families. Since 1993, generous donors like you have provided the means for the PCF to fund more than 1,400 investigators. We’ve received nearly 6,000 applications for our Competitive Awards Program that were submitted from scientific investigators at leading medical institutions in 43 countries. These investigators are on the frontline of research, working in concert to streamline their research approach and share best practices. And each year we bring together the world’s finest prostate cancer experts to collaborate on ideas, educate each other and energize the research field during the PCF Scientific Retreat. All this activity is focused on the fact that one in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, the most-diagnosed non-skin cancer in the United States. In 2006 alone, more than 234,000 men received the unfortunate news. But there is cause for hope. When the PCF began in 1993, there were seven approved drugs for prostate cancer – today there are 13. Most importantly, even as the population of men at greatest risk has grown with the aging baby boom, there has been a 22% decrease in prostate cancer deaths. We want that number to be zero, and we can get there. But we can’t do it alone. Just as we’re starting to turn the tide against prostate cancer, government funding for prostate cancer research is projected to decrease by 9% in 2007. We need your help to assist us in bridging the gap of resources. We need you to alert Washington that we will not tolerate a funding shortfall. And the timing is crucial. If we don’t increase the needed resources to learn how to prevent the disease, we will witness an estimated 37% increase in prostate cancer diagnoses by 2015 based on population trends. At the PCF, we’re aggressively accelerating our timetable to prevent this from happening. In 2007, we’re confidently building on the solid foundation created by nearly five years of leadership under the PCF’s previous chief executive officer, Leslie D. Michelson. Thank you to our many generous friends and donors for their support throughout the years. We look forward to working with you to put the PCF out of business. Michael Milken Jonathan W. Simons, MD Founder and Chairman Chief Executive Officer and President David H. Koch Chair 2006 Progress Report 3 About Prostate Cancer The Prostate Cancer Foundation is dedicated to harnessing and leveraging every available resource to find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Risk Factors Prostate cancer occurs when the cells of the prostate Although all the detailed mechanisms underlying – a small, innocuous-looking gland that sits just the genetic damage in the prostate gland that leads below a man’s bladder inside his pelvis – begin to to development of prostate cancer remain unknown, grow uncontrollably. It is the most common non- risk factors for prostate cancer are well understood skin cancer in the United States, striking one in six and include age, race and family history. men. In 2006 alone, more than 234,000 men were • As men age, their risk of developing prostate diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than cancer increases significantly. About 65% of all 27,000 men died from the disease. Over the past prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the decade, nearly 400,000 American men have been age of 65. lost to this disease and nearly 2 million men are • Compared with Caucasian men, African living with it. American men are 60% more likely to develop prostate cancer, more likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from the disease. • Men with a first-degree relative – a father, a brother or even a son – with prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease. The risk is even higher if the family members were diagnosed before age 60. Bladder Prostate Prostate Cancer Cells 4 Prostate Cancer Foundation 2006 Progress Report 5 Detection and Diagnosis The Team Approach to More than 95% of men who are diagnosed with Prostate Cancer Management and treated for early-stage disease remain disease- The complexity of treating prostate cancer has free after five years compared with only 35% of yielded three different groups of prostate cancer men who are diagnosed with late-stage disease. specialists. Urologists, radiation oncologists and The PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test and medical oncologists all play important roles in the the digital rectal exam (DRE) are used to detect the management of men with prostate cancer presence of prostate cancer when no symptoms are and each group brings its own area of expertise present. An elevated PSA or an abnormal DRE can to the treatment of men with this disease. signal the need for a biopsy to examine the prostate Yet these groups of physicians often work cells and determine if they are cancerous. independently, potentially missing some The American Cancer Society recommends that opportunities to work as a team to maximize both the PSA and DRE should be offered annually treatment options. beginning at age 50 or earlier if there is a family Over the past few years, the PCF has worked history of prostate cancer. tirelessly to bring these groups together and to create a systemized team approach to prostate cancer management throughout the country. With this approach, men with prostate cancer can better benefit from the expertise of each type Probability of Diagnosis by Age of specialist at every step of the way – learning about all available treatment options and choosing the treatment approach that’s right for them. 4 Prostate Cancer Foundation 2006 Progress Report 5 PLAYER Investigators NO. 1,400NO. 234 - Total number of awardees since inception Since 1993, the Prostate Cancer Foundation has funded the work of more than 1,400 investigators – promoting innovative ideas in prostate cancer research and novel concepts in drug discovery and development. International prostate cancer investigators who partner with the PCF. Dr. Donald S. Coffey with recipients of the 2006 Donald S. Coffey Career Development Award and their mentors. Clinical investigators in the PCF Therapy Consortium. 6 Prostate Cancer Foundation 2006 Progress Report 7 Accomplishments in Science Major programs instituted and implemented by the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 2006 helped researchers, physicians and patients stay up-to-date on the most recent research findings – and allowed the PCF to continue focusing its efforts on strategies to move the field forward. Therapy Consortium Prostate Cancer Symposium Thirteen years ago, when the PCF was founded, In 2006, nearly 1,500 practicing physicians, few institutions were focusing their efforts on biopharmaceutical executives and government establishing centers of excellence for prostate policy makers attended the Prostate Cancer NO. 234 cancer research. With funding from the PCF, eight Symposium, a three-day meeting focusing on institutions across the country were able to establish issues to advance the standard of multidisciplinary rigorous prostate cancer research programs and care of men with prostate cancer. The program was become leaders in conducting prostate cancer co-sponsored by a partnership among the PCF, the clinical trials. American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Since its inception, the PCF has collectively provided Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and more than $23 million to the Therapy Consortium the Society of Urologic Oncology. institutions, which include Cedars-Sinai Medical Consistent with the PCF’s efforts to promote a Center; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; MD Anderson team approach to prostate cancer management, Cancer Center; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer many presenters at the conference emphasized that Center; The Johns Hopkins University; the University important advances in patient care for prostate cancer of California, San Francisco; the University of come from coordinated efforts of all members of the Michigan; and the University of Wisconsin. healthcare team. The value of the PCF’s investment was demonstrated as nearly all were selected by the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program to receive three-year Clinical Consortium Awards, beginning in 2005. These awards are designed to help the nation’s leading research programs collaborate on clinical trials and further speed the development of new drugs and treatments for prostate cancer. For a list of Therapy Consortium clinical investigators, see page 34. 6 Prostate Cancer Foundation 2006 Progress Report 7 PLAYER Global NO. 43 - Total number of countries that submitted applications for funding since inception The global reach of the Prostate Cancer Foundation has sparked innovative prostate cancer research projects in dozens of countries and has led to an increased focus on the need for improved prostate cancer therapies around the world. In 2006, the 63 physicians and scientists who Competitive Awards Program There is no shortage of innovative and creative ideas in represented the “best of the best” in prostate prostate cancer research, only a shortage of resources cancer research received funding through the to pursue them completely. Each year, the PCF’s Competitive Awards Program. Nearly $6.1 million Competitive Awards Program provides funding to was distributed, adding to the nearly $81 million investigators with unique and creative solutions to distributed since the program’s inception in 1993.